1. THE THINKING
BEHIND
the FUTURE of PARENTING
© 2016 Mattel

2. For 85 years, stimulating early childhood
development has been our mission. But the
world is changing rapidly. In just the past 5 years,
the advancement of technology has permeated
aspects of all our lives in simple and complex
ways – even for children. Some of the trends
we examined are about to happen. Some may
never happen. But inspired by childhood itself,
in all its open-endedness, we set out to imagine
the possibilities in a child’s development to set a
course for their bright future and ours.
CONTINUUMFISHER-PRICE
2
As a global innovation design consultancy, we
partnered with Fisher-Price to imagine a future
where technology gives parents the superpowers
they need to encourage the universal pursuit of a
happy child. But just what defines a happy child?
We worked with futurists, product developers,
technologists, and educators to understand
the opportunities in personalized learning,
early childhood development, and parent-child
connections, as well as the societal challenges that
lay ahead for tomorrow’s family.
Products shown within the Future of Parenting vision are conceptual and not yet available for sale.
© 2016 Mattel

3. 4
IN ORDER TO WRAP OUR HEADS AROUND THE COMPLEXITIES
OF THE FUTURE OF DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY,
we talked to the best and brightest
from the worlds of art, science,
technology, and design. From early
childhood development specialists
and innovators to futurists and
thought leaders, their insights took
us to a life a decade away from the
here and now - where technology
has heart and parents have help.
© 2016 Mattel

4. SKYLAR TIBBITS
Professor of Architecture
MIT Self Assembly Lab
Skylar Tibbits is an American
designer and computer
scientist. He is best known
for his work on self-assembly
and pioneering the field of 4D
Printing, having coined the
term in his 2013 TED talk.
STEVE BROWN
Intel Chief Evangelist
ROSALIND PICARD
Director of Affective Computing
Research, MIT; Founder/Chief
Scientist, Empatica
DAVID ROSE
CEO, Ditto Labs
Visiting Scientist, MIT Media
Lab Adviser, Memomi, Inc.
Steve Brown helps companies
understand what technology
and business innovation will
make possible in the coming
decade, how that will transform
their markets, and what their
customers will want.
Rosalind Picard has co-
founded two businesses
creating wearable
sensors and analytics to
improve health leveraging
technology to help measure
and communicate emotion.
David Rose’s research
focuses on computer-human
interfaces and a vision that
technology will atomize,
combining itself with the
objects that make up the very
fabric of daily living.
DAVID WEEKS
Founder, David Weeks Studio
From wooden robots to
sprawling sectionals,
American designer David
Weeks takes a hands-on
approach to his work, driven
by the belief that design must
hold universal appeal.
GIANFRANCO ZACCAI
Founder and CDO,
Continuum
As co-founder of Continuum,
Zaccai is responsible for some of
the most groundbreaking design
innovations in the last three
decades, including the Reebok
Pump, Swiffer WetJet and the
Omnipod insulin pump.
KIM EDWARDS
Early Childhood Educator
SEAN LALLY
Founder, WEATHERS
Kim Edwards studies the
impact of overload on the
brain paired with hands-
on motor skill development
of the whole child.
Sean Lally leads a team of
architects, engineers and
researchers, to uncover
how different forms of
energy can be harnessed
to create a type of
sustainable architecture.
DEBBIE ECCLESTON
Social Worker
Debbie focuses her work
on clinical social work
services based on bio-
psychosocial perspectives.
OUR SUBJECT MATTER
E X P E R T S
5© 2016 Mattel

5. By speaking with
NXT, experts in
understanding how
behavior impacts long
term generational
shifts, we understand
how our concepts will
evolve over time.
By uncovering the
near term trajectory of
tech evolution combed
from across various
industries, we ensure
our concepts are
grounded in a logical
hypothesis of relatable
technology.
By speaking with futurists, innovators, and
early childhood development specialists
across a diverse set of disciplines, we
uncover how our initiative can authentically
craft a vision around learning and play.
CULTURAL BEHAVIORSTECHNOLOGY TRENDS
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS
6
INSIGHT
DNA
The cross-section
of cultural behavior,
outside the industry
tech trends, and deep
knowledge within the
subject ensure our
vision is grounded
in diverse and deep
learnings.
© 2016 Mattel

6. THE
INSIGHTS
1 3 52 4 6
These 6 key insights provide a roadmap of foundational elements and
technical themes for the Future of Parenting project to inspire features and
formats rooted in solutions, play, learning and development.
DYNAMIC
SIMPLICITY
KEEP IT
HUMAN
NO
BOUNDARIES
CONTEXTUALIZED
RESPONSE
IMAGINATIVE
IMMERSION
QUANTIFIED
SELF
• Experiences
that evolve with
people, generating
meaningful new life
through intuitive and
constant updating
over time.
• Responsive learning
and play inspired by
what is happening at
a specific moment in
time and place.
• Technology that
becomes invisible
reflecting and
reacting to human
expression.
• Experiences do
not live in isolation
but connect and
flow in the spaces
between redefining
open-ended and
contextual play.
• Environments
become a threshold
where anything can
be an immersive
display.
• Meaningful
intelligence that
collects and
connects the data
driven insights
between what
people are saying
and why they are
doing it.
7© 2016 Mattel

7. INSIGHT 1 | DYNAMIC SIMPLICITY
Dynamic simplicity amplifies the current day to day use of basic
objects, activities and technology through effortless interactions
guided by who, how or when they are experienced. Experiences
will evolve with people, generating meaningful new life through
constant updating over time. Having contextualized control over
future tech embeds delight and magic into learning opportunities,
constantly transforming simple interactions into tailored,
collaborative experiences. The future will call for having better
instead of having more.
“The core nature of product design has changed with
connected devices: an object can receive bug patches or new
features through software updates. This means that objects
can stay relevant for longer, and we can be constantly
delighted by new functionality. It’s a new thing with each
update!”
-DAVID ROSE, F U TU RIST
8© 2016 Mattel
CULTURAL TRENDS TEC HNOLOGY TR ENDS
Identity is no longer something assigned to
you, it’s something you dynamically discovered
along the way. With this approach to self,
products need to accommodate human fluidity.
This translates to the utmost simplicity, or
evolution, of products and experiences that
change with their owners.
Often times when a new way of making
emerges, we immediately jump to figuring
out how it can be personalized. This creates
logistical issues and doesn’t necessarily make
a better product. We need to find the right
balance of control and freedom over the things
we create or risk creating overly engineered,
poorly design products.
IDENTITY IS DYNAMIC OVE R-PE RSONAL IZATION

8. DYNAMIC
SIMPLICITY
Future play
experiences will
seamlessly merge the
physical activities
with enhanced
digital experiences
throughout different
environments. As the
people that use them
grow, so too will the
experiences.
9
MEMORY TREE
From dynamically
measuring height to
capturing durable memories
of skill based growth across
three dimensions (social-
emotional, cognitive, and
physical), the Memory Tree
reacts to the need of the
person interacting with it
while being harmoniously
integrated within the
home’s environment.
© 2016 Mattel

9. INSIGHT 2 | CONTEXTUALIZED RESPONSE
The future is responsive, not cumbersome. Learning and play
will be enhanced by contextualized discovery inspired by what
is happening at that specific moment in time and place. Future
tech will dissolve into the environment, augmenting families’
lives by allowing basic core objects—like windows or wooden toy
blocks—to be reactive and intuitive. This means that humble toys
and consumer products have the power to catalyze parent-child
interactions, contextualize learning moments, develop motor
skills, and spark open-ended play.
“New technology is enabling people to communicate
emotion in ways never before possible.”
-ROSALIND PICARD, F U TU RIST
10© 2016 Mattel© 2016 Mattel
Answers and information are accessible at all
times thanks to personal tech. We don’t need to
do upfront research and our expectation is that
what we need to know is accessible wherever
and whenever.
Sophisticated technology is being used to
create systems that appear only when required:
interfaces are no longer screens, they are
intuitive and reactive. Invisibility means that
when a system is not in use, it can disappear.
Energy-based experiences create a larger
experience than their physical object, creating
a flexible and upgradeable component.
REAL TIME EVERYTHING APPARE NTLY ANALOG + INVIS IB L E
CULTURAL TRENDS TEC HNOLOGY TR ENDS

10. CONTEXTUALIZED
RESPONSE
WINDOW TO THE WORLD
Windows will sense
objects outside the
home and become
a canvas of magical
and dynamic visuals,
presenting the child
with a personalized
and age appropriate
teachable moment.
These richer,
sensorial experiences
will have the power
to create deeper
contextual teachable
moments based on
what is happening
right then and there.
As the environment
outside the window
changes in real time,
the window contextually
reacts, creating a digitally
augmented play experience
that grows with the child.
11© 2016 Mattel

11. INSIGHT 3 | KEEP IT HUMAN
The future isn’t cold. In the age of the materials revolution,
humanized technology will not define the choice of materials.
Instead, it will reflect and react to human expression through self
assembling matter, smart, home-inspired materials, and gestural
interaction. Children have ideas and need to be able to share
them. Expression is critical and materials have the power to
shape how future generations will instill lifelike qualities into their
ideas.
“The future smells like wood. Toys and games are no
longer made of wood and paper they’ve all been replaced
with plastics. I imagine a future where toys and objects are
made of natural materials like wood, but still engage with
technology through RFID and projection.”
-DAVID ROSE, F U TU RIST
Our lives online hold just as much weight as
our ‘real lives’. For young kids, the distinction
is becoming increasingly blurred. Parents
will need to help their children navigate this
sophisticated landscape so that their ideas are
expressed across any medium.
Products that come alive and react to people
have a magic quality, especially when they add
to the emotional and human relationship with
experience. The same way the 19th century
was the machine revolution, the 20th century
was the beginning of the computer revolution,
the 21st century will be the materials revolution,
instilling lifelike qualities into the materials to
make them more dynamic and useful.
LIFE AMPLIFIED MATE RIAL S REVOLU TION
12© 2016 Mattel© 2016 Mattel
CULTURAL TRENDS TEC HNOLOGY TR ENDS

12. KEEP IT
HUMAN
Products with subtly
integrated digital
intelligence adjust
seamlessly to human
needs. The materials
revolution will not
only expand the
palette of materials
we will interact with,
but also provide
limitless ways
technology will
naturally evolve with
human expression.
13
DIGITAL BOUNCER
As baby sleeps, the
bouncer moves into sleep
mode. When baby wakes,
the bouncer brings digital
floating elements to life,
naturally evolving with
human expression. These
digital elements are subtly
integrated within home-
inspired materials like wood
and warm felt reflecting the
family’s environment.
© 2016 Mattel

13. INSIGHT 4 | IMAGINATIVE IMMERSION
The future is not screen based. As peoples’ sensory capabilities
are being rapidly augmented, the definition of space is changing.
Rather than understanding an environment as a physical barrier,
it will become more of a threshold with an energy barrier. People
are accustomed to mediating their lives by touching small backlit
rectangles. But anything can be a display. Designing the image
and it’s medium of display together will open up new ways of
seeing giving extra-sensory perception.
“Our current technologies and AI systems exist in cages. In
the future they will be more integrated into our everyday
lives and become autonomous within our environments.”
-STEVE BROWN, F U TU RIST
People are struggling to figure out how to
incorporate tech into their lives. They fear it
makes us less human and more distracted.
We’re predicting a shift to a heightened
consciousness of things where future
tech becomes invisible and intentionally
reintegrated so that human touch, face to face
communication, and unspoken emotions rise
to the forefront.
We have complete control over sound,
temperature, light and color today. Tomorrow,
we will create adaptive and immersive
environments in our own homes where that
control is intuitively and automatically tuned to
our needs at any given moment. Infra Red and
electromagnetic integration, measurement,
and adjustment are just the beginning of
immersion that breaks free from the screen.
INVISIBLE TECHNOLOGY TU NING PE RSONAL S PACES
14© 2016 Mattel© 2016 Mattel
CULTURAL TRENDS TEC HNOLOGY TR ENDS

14. IMAGINATIVE
IMMERSION
As children play
with physical play
prompts, their digital
ecosystem reacts,
growing, changing
and reacting to their
natural play patterns.
These environments
can vary from
wildly imaginative
to playfully life-like
and provide new and
evolving experiences
over time, directed by
the child.
15
DIGITAL GROVE
Vivid, textural watercolor
animates an immersive
scene to life in layers. Child
created characters balance
clean, linear, graphic
world elements conveying
a playfully sophisticated
Digital Grove. Always alive,
the grove takes over the
room surrounding the child
in their own imagination.
© 2016 Mattel

15. INSIGHT 5 | NO BOUNDARIES
Interactions are bigger than any one device. Connecting
disparate elements means that learning and control isn’t just
centered around physical buttons, but can cross senses, be
influenced by context and mood, at any moment, anywhere.
Future mindsets aren’t governed by walls and single-use
products, but have the capacity to interconnect and flow in the
spaces between, redefining open-ended and contextual play.
Parents are acknowledging an increasing focus
on the individual child, as well as allowing
for unique quirks and preferences between
multiple children, instead of trying to create
a family “tribe”. This means that while one
product may know and work well for one
unique family member, it will need to adjust
and connect to the many unique things and
preferences each other family member has.
The biggest innovations will happen at the
Micro Scale and will profoundly effect the
things we do at the Macro Scale. We see a
persistent trend of embeddable computing and
capabilities being installed in new materials and
existing form factors.
STANDARDS ARE GONE MICRO INNOVATION
16
“Rethink the use of energy and make it a medium that is
malleable and capable of being designed in a way that
provides a sense of place the same way a traditional
building would.”
-SEAN LALLY, F U TU RIST
© 2016 Mattel© 2016 Mattel
CULTURAL TRENDS TEC HNOLOGY TR ENDS

16. NO BOUNDARIES
Play, learning and
development will be
enhanced with the
seamless integration
of physical and
digital experiences.
These objects and
experiences will
extend beyond their
individual moments
and create context
and continuity as
they become part
of the overall home
environment.
17
DIGITAL WALKER
Digital play elements
encourage physical
development by flowing
from the walker into the
space around. As the
projected numbers are
gobbled up by the walker
and explode into delightful
bubbles of light, gross
motor skill movement is
encouraged in a seamless
integration of physical and
digital experience.
© 2016 Mattel

17. INSIGHT 6 | QUANTIFIED SELF
Tomorrow will see insights from data refined into meaningful
intelligence that collects and connects the dots between what
people are saying and why they are doing it. These relatable
stories cut through the information overload, ensuring that
parents aren’t guided by fear and numbers, but by relevance.
Meaningful data filters the facts to convey the benefits—like
wellness, growth, and durable memories—with the intent of
streamlining peoples’ lives in a way that emotionally resonates.
“We need to think about what are the innately human
elements in the experiences we create and the things that can
be automated or made easier or better. Embrace humanity,
don’t replace it.”
-STEVE BROWN, F U TU RIST
We have less money and less space for stuff. So
when we do buy stuff, it is more precious and
needs to convey more meaning. Societal shifts
like current generational movement to living in
the city and the ability to know more than ever
behind the workings and ethics of companies
means that the future product or service we buy
into must bring meaning and relevance within
our lives. The consumer influence has given way
to benefit driven conversations.
Understanding large quantities of data is
becoming a formidable challenge. More
and more, deep learning techniques will be
deployed to derive meaning and analyze data
in a new way. This involves teaching computers
learning techniques by which they can
autonomously find meaning in data without a
set of programmed instructions.
MEANINGFUL CONSUMPTION D E E P L E ARNING AND B IG DATA
18© 2016 Mattel© 2016 Mattel
CULTURAL TRENDS TEC HNOLOGY TR ENDS

18. QUANTIFIED
SELF
Everyday objects will
offer a meaningful
conversation and
benefit to the future
family beyond
simple data driven
tracking of what is
happening. As family
members engage
with future solutions,
they will intuitively
understand the
why, what, and how
behind a development
moment.
19© 2016 Mattel
MONITOR RING
Beyond basic tracking
of family sleep habits,
the Monitor Ring visually
communicates the reason
why children wake, what
they need, and ensures
that the parent responds
whose REM cycle is most
closely aligned with waking.
Gestural hand interaction
controls response and
action.

19. AS WE MOVE INTO THE FUTURE,
Peoples’ attitudes and values
surrounding parenting, digital
experiences, and meaningful
connection are changing quickly. Our
journey to help create the Future of
Parenting doesn’t end here. Fueled by
imaginative immersion and adaptive
context, the groundwork is laid for a
bright future that is ours to create.
20© 2016 Mattel

20. 21© 2016 Mattel